Notes
Abbreviations
| C-J | Louisville Courier-Journal |
| ConVet | Confederate Veteran |
| Filson | Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky |
| KDLA | Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort |
| KyHS | Special Collections, Kentucky History Center, Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort |
| Messenger | Confederate Home Messenger |
Introduction
1. Going Back to Civilian Life, iv.
2. Lincoln quote from “VA History in Brief,” 5.
3. Klotter, A Concise History of Kentucky.
1. The Cripple and the Banker
1. The description of Beasley's funeral service and interment that begins and ends this chapter comes from the Louisville Courier-Journal (hereafter C-J), March 6-7, 1898, and the Louisville Times, March 6, 1898.
2. Confederate casualty figures are problematic. The “one in five” and “a quarter-million” figures are “commonly cited by historians today,” according to Faust, This Republic of Suffering. The “20 percent” is from Rosenburg, Living Monuments, citing an extrapolation in Livermore, Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America, 1861-65. The “tens of thousands” comes from an estimate in Dean, Shook over Hell.
3. Beasley's enlistment and service record and unit history comes from the Alabama Department of Archives and History, www.archives.alabama.gov/civilwar/soldier.cfm.
4. Trammell, “Battles Leave an Army of Disabled,” Washington Times, June 21, 2003.
5. “VA History in Brief”; Blanck and Millender, “Before Civil Rights.”
6. Wines, “Paupers in Almshouses,” in Report on Crime, Pauperism and Benevolence in the United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890 (Part 1, Analysis), 303.
7. “VA History in Brief,” 5-6.
8. Even as Louisville's Confederate veterans gathered to organize their own relief organization, a letter to the editor of the Courier-Journal lamented the closing of the Sadd Mission, a relief organization founded by J. M. Sadd and funded by public contributions. The Sadd Mission had provided meals, vocational training, and religious instruction to hundreds of Louisville's homeless and destitute each year. C-J, April 3, 1888.
9. C-J, April 1, 1888.
10. Horan, Confederate Agent, 137-140; H. Levin, Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, 94.
11. C-J and Louisville Evening Post, April 3, 1888; Johnston, Memorial History of Louisville, vol. 1, 215-219.
12. Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky of the Dead and Living Men of the Nineteenth Century; “Louisville of To-Day.”
13. For more on John Leathers, see Johnson, History of Kentucky; Evans, Confederate Military History; and City of Louisville and a Glimpse of Kentucky.
14. For a more complete listing of these earlier groups, see W. W. White, The Confederate Veteran.
15. A copy of the dinner program for the AAT reunion dinner is in the United Confederate Veterans Association Records, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
16. The names of the association's charter members appeared in C-J and the Louisville Evening Post, April 3, 1888; their occupations can be found in contemporary city directories and biographical compilations. They were, almost without exception, professional men, Louisville's business, political, educational, religious, and social leaders. For a financial accounting of the organization's first nine years, see C-J, April 14, 1897, and “Confederates in Kentucky,” Confederate Veteran (hereafter ConVet) 5, no. 5 (May 1897): 209.
17. Allen, The Big Change, discusses the stigma charity carried with it at the time. For a more thorough discussion of how men like Leathers determined the worthiness of Confederate veterans like Beasley, see Rosenburg, Living Monuments.
18. Mrs. Williams wrote about her visit to Beasley's newsstand in “One of the Real Heroes,” ConVet 5, no. 4 (April 1897): 167.
19. The generosity exhibited by Louisville's ex-Confederates toward Billy Beasley did not end with his death. His widow, daughter, and stepdaughter received regular assistance from the Confederate Association of Kentucky for the next fifteen months. Mrs. Beasley was hospitalized with typhoid fever in June 1899 and died on July 9. The ex-Confederates paid her medical expense and arranged for her burial and for a marker next to her husband in Cave Hill Cemetery. C-J, July 10, 1899.
2. The Private and the Clubwoman
1. For a detailed description of the memorial and dedication service (including speeches), see Kentucky Leader, June 11, 1893; and “Unveiling a Monument at Lexington, Ky.,” ConVet 1, no. 7 (July 1893): 196. For preparations, see the Lexington Press, May 28-30, 1893.
2. Quoted in Halberstam, Coldest Winter, 645.
3. “Reunion at Augusta,” ConVet 1, no. 11 (November 1893): 323; and untitled article in ConVet 2, no. 10 (October 1894): 290. See also W. W. White, The Confederate Veteran.
4. C-J, September 21, 1889.
5. Biographical information on Boyd comes from Peter, History of Fayette County, Kentucky, 528; and “John Boyd, Maj. Gen. U.C.V.,” ConVet 2, no. 4 (April 1894): 121. He was also profiled in the Dallas News, May 22, 1895, as part of its Houston reunion coverage.
6. “John Boyd, Maj. Gen. U.C.V,” 121.
7. Lexington Herald, April 15, 1918.
8. Confederate Veteran Association of Kentucky, “Constitution,” Special Collections, Kentucky History Center, Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort (hereafter KyHS).
9. Lexington Leader, March 20, 1892.
10. For brief histories of the founding of the United Confederate Veterans and its grassroots origins, see Foster, Ghosts of the Confederacy, and W. W. White, The Confederate Veteran.
11. “United Confederate Veteran Camps,” ConVet 1, no. 3 (March 1893): 85; and “U.C.V. Camps,” ConVet 2, no. 3 (March 1894): 94.
12. For an early history of the Kentucky UCV, see “History of U.C.V. of Kentucky,” ConVet 1, no. 11 (November 1893): 340.
13. Lexington Leader, March 20, 1892.
14. Lexington Leader, June 1, 1893.
15. C-J, September 20, 1889.
16. Kinkead, A History of Kentucky; Deiss, “Thirteen Stars—Thirteen States,” 7.
17. Thirty years later Mrs. John B. Castleman still seethed as she recalled her treatment during wartime at a Federal checkpoint. Mrs. Castleman and her sister, both girls barely into their teens, were stopped while trying to return to their home on the outskirts of Louisville. The Union officer in charge of the checkpoint refused them passage and took the children into custody, where they were interrogated as possible spies. Only the intervention of a family friend prevented the frightened girls from being jailed and held for charges when they refused to take a Union loyalty oath. C-J, September 9, 1895.
18. From a speech by Louisville mayor Charles D. Jacob at an Orphan Brigade reunion, C-J, September 20, 1889.
19. “Our Dead at Lexington, Kentucky,” ConVet 4, no. 3 (March 1896): 89.
20. Ironically, a year later the Women's Auxiliary to the Confederate Veterans Association would threaten to boycott Confederate Decoration Day if Breckinridge were allowed to attend. The “silver-tongued orator” had been caught in a messy affair with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter. In the twelve months following his speech at the dedication, Breckinridge would lose a $15,000 breach-of-promise lawsuit, reelection to the House, and most of his reputation. Lexington Leader, May 23, 1894.
21. The memorial ritual remained the same, year after year. See Lexington Press, May 27, 1894, and Sunday Leader, June 6, 1897.
22. This treatment of battlefield dead was not unusual. See Faust, This Republic of Suffering.
23. Bennett Young tells the Dorothea Burton story in “Dedication of Zollicoffer Monument,” ConVet 18, no. 12 (December 1910).
24. Blair, Cities of the Dead, sees memorialization as an act of resistance against a Federal occupation. For a description of Decoration Day in Louisville, see “The Lesson of Decoration Day,” Southern Bivouac 1, no. 9-10 (May–June 1883): 390.
25. Cynthiana Democrat, May 28, 1929.
26. Peter, History of Fayette County, Kentucky, 616. Also, social club news and announcements in Lexington newspapers, 1885 to 1905, demonstrate the breadth of Adeline Graves's club activities.
27. “One Hundred Years Old,” ConVet 5, no. 6 (June 1897): 254-255.
28. “History of U.C.V. of Kentucky,” ConVet 1, no. 3 (November 1893): 340.
29. C-J, September 19, 1889.
30. On the organization of the UDC, see Poppenheim, History of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The quotations are from ibid., 4, 7.
31. Lexington Leader, March 23, 1896. Also “United Confederate Daughters,” ConVet 4, no. 1 (January 1896): 22; and Lexington Herald, April 15, 1918.
32. “Kentucky,” ConVet 4, no. 12 (December 1896): 408.
3. The Boat Captain and the Bank Robber
1. The account of the meeting between Daniel Parr and Bennett Young that opens and closes this chapter comes from C-J, April 19, 1901; “Home for Disabled Confederates,” The Lost Cause 4, no. 9 (April 1901): 131; and Mt. Sterling (Ky.) Advocate, April 30, 1901. Bennett Young is quoted extensively in the C-J account.
2. Duke, History of Morgan's Cavalry, and Young, Reminiscences of a Soldier of the Orphan Brigade.
3. Georgetown (Ky.) Weekly Times, July 13, 1881.
4. Georgetown (Ky.) Weekly Times, November 30, 1881.
5. “Taps,” Bivouac 1, no. 1 (September 1882): 36; and untitled article in Southern Historical Society Papers 11, no. 8-9 (August–September 1883): 432.
6. A Boyd County newspaper editor grumbled about the state's refusal to provide financial support: “The sum required would not affect the taxpayers … any more than the weight of a feather would check the speed of a horse,” he wrote. Catlettsburg (Ky.) Democrat, quoted in Georgetown (Ky.) Weekly Times, November 30, 1881.
7. Georgetown (Ky.) Weekly Times, November 14, 1883.
8. The best study of the Confederate soldiers’ homes in the states of the Southern Confederacy (and the schemes that financed them) is Rosenburg, Living Monuments.
9. “The Blue and the Gray,” Southern Bivouac 2, no. 9 (May 1884): 431.
10. ConVet 6, no. 3 (March 1898): 156-157.
11. ConVet 30, no. 1 (January 1923): 48.
12. Plante, “National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers,” 57-59.
13. “Confederates in Kentucky,” ConVet 5, no. 5 (May 1897): 209.
14. During an oration entitled “Reconciliation,” Bennett Young would hold up to the crowd a bullet-ridden old gray jacket, which he would then slowly and reverently fold and put away as he recited a familiar Confederate poem: “Fold it up carefully, / Lay it aside; / Tenderly touch it, / Look on it with pride.” “Confederate Memorial, Columbus, O.,” ConVet 3, no. 9 (September 1897): 455-456.
15. C-J, January 12, 1898.
16. Bennett H. Young was an extraordinary part of Kentucky politics, commerce, jurisprudence, and popular culture during the twenty years either side of 1900, and it's surprising that he is largely forgotten today. The information here was drawn mainly from Kinchen, General Bennett H. Young, a hagiographic, but the only existing, book-length biography. He is, however, listed in many biographical compilations, and I have consulted Johnson, History of Kentucky; Johnston, Memorial History of Louisville; LaBree, Notable Men of Kentucky and Press Reference Book; H. Levin, Lawyers and Lawmakers; and Seekamp and Burlingame, Who's Who in Louisville. See also McAfee, Kentucky Politicians; and City of Louisville and a Glimpse of Kentucky. Young was a fascinating figure, and he deserves a full-length, critical biography.
17. Edward G. Longacre, “Terror Strikes the Northern Heartland,” Civil War Times 42, no. 3 (August 2003): 36.
18. My account of the St. Albans raid comes primarily from Wilson, “The Hit-and-Run Raid.” (Unfortunately, Wilson changes Young's middle name to “Hiram.”) For contrasts, see Harris, Assassination of Lincoln, which seethes with Union rage over the Vermont raid, and Headley, Confederate Operations in Canada and New York, which tries to justify it militarily. Kinchen's Daredevils of the Confederate Army is good for contemporary readers who wish to know more about the strategic and political contexts of the raid.
19. J. L. Driscol, “Capture of St. Albans, Vt.,” ConVet 5, no. 2 (February 1897): 74-75.
20. Kinchen, General Bennett H. Young, 79-80.
21. For more on Young, see Evans, Confederate Military History.
22. Untitled article, ConVet 2, no. 8 (August 1894): 251.
23. “The Sun Shines Bright,” ConVet 4, no. 10 (October 1896): 325-330; and “Delightful Reunion at Nashville,” ConVet 4, no. 11 (November 1896): 261-265.
24. For a description of Missouri's scheme, see “History of the Missouri Confederate Home,” ConVet 1, no. 5 (November 1893): 147; for Kentucky's emulation of the scheme, see Lexington Leader, October 17, 1901.
25. C-J, January 18, 1898, and “Confederate Home Wanted in Kentucky,” ConVet 6, no. 2 (February 1898): 38.
26. C-J, November 19, 1898; and “Daughters of the Confederacy in Kentucky,” ConVet 6, no. 12 (December 1898): 553.
27. “Louisville Wants Reunion Next Year,” ConVet 6, no. 4 (April 1898): 158.
28. The text of the speech is printed in “Reunion News,” ConVet 7, no. 6 (June 1899): 251. See also C-J, July 12, 1899.
29. “Reunion,” ConVet 18, no. 6 (June 1910): 259-261.
30. W. W. White, The Confederate Veteran, 64; and Bourbon News, February 9, 1900.
31. “The Louisville Reunion: Address by Col. B. H. Young, Chairman,” ConVet 8, no. 6 (June 1900): 244-247.
32. Kirwan, Johnny Green, 206-207.
33. This biographical information comes from Parr's expansive obituary in C-J, January 20, 1904. During the bitter probate litigation that followed his death, however, it was revealed that Parr was probably from an Italian-American family named “Parero.” He got his start as a riverbank barkeep and huckster before entering the shipping business. See Kentucky Irish American, April 9, 1904.
34. C-J, October 23, 1902.
35. Donation of the bells to Walnut Street Baptist Church: C-J, October 5, 1902. Endowment of Parr's Rest: Louisville Times, December 5, 1914.
36. For more about Virginia Marmaduke Parr Sale, see Seekamp and Burlingame, Who's Who in Louisville.
37. Indenture accompanying the deed transferring ownership of Parr's Chestnut property to the ex-Confederates. C-J, April 19, 1901.
4. The Auditor and the Stockman
1. Evans, Confederate Military History, 389-390.
2. For biographical information about Hewitt, see Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts History, www.auditor.ky.gov/Public/About_Us/APA_ History.asp; and “Gen. Fayette Hewitt,” ConVet 17, no. 4 (April 1909): 177. The stories of the embezzlement and Hewitt's resignation are told in Dallas (Tex.) News, March 23, 1888, and November 21, 1889.
3. Lexington Leader, February 5, 1896, and Lexington Herald, February 7, 1896.
4. Lexington Leader, May 23, 1901.
5. “Maj. Gen. J. M. Poyntz, Richmond, Ky.,” ConVet 7, no. 11 (November 1899): 493.
6. Crichton, America 1900, 53-57. For a wry take on Goebel, the assassination, and the aftermath by a reporter who covered the events, see Cobb, Exit Laughing, 242-261.
7. Kleber, Kentucky Encyclopedia.
8. C-J, October 22, 1901.
9. For a description of the meeting, including all the speeches quoted here (unless otherwise noted), see C-J, October 23, 1901.
10. Judge R. H. Cunningham's entire speech is reprinted in ConVet 8, no. 1 (January 1902).
11. Owingsville (Ky.) Outlook, March 19, 1903, and October 10, 1908; Lexington Leader, February 24, 1912.
12. Mt. Sterling (Ky.) Advocate, November 19, 1901.
13. For verbal pledges and optimistic estimates of financial support, see Lexington Leader, October 17, 1901, C-J, October 23, 1901, and Bourbon (Ky.) News, January 17, 1902.
14. Bourbon (Ky.) News, November 15, 1901.
15. “A Home in Kentucky,” Lost Cause 5, no. 5 (December 1901); and Minutes of the Sixth Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1902, KyHS.
16. There is little evidence that Union veterans provided large amounts of money, but Kentucky's ex-Confederate fundraisers delighted in showcasing contributions from their former foes as a way of emphasizing the nonpartisan nature of their effort. A dubious claim that the first subscription came from a Union veteran who lost his arm in battle against Kentuckians at Franklin, Tennessee, was dutifully reported in newspapers across the state. Bourbon (Ky.) News, December 6, 1901.
17. See Journals of the Kentucky House and Senate, 1902.
18. Hickman (Ky.) Courier, February 14, 1902.
19. Lexington Leader, January 19, 1902, and Richmond (Ky.) Climax, January 15, 1902.
20. The nay vote was cast by Republican Robert G. Hanna of Lewis County. Fleming's quote is from Lancaster (Ky.) Central Record, February 27, 1902.
21. Board of Trustees, Minutes, May 6, 1902, KyHS (hereafter, Minutes).
22. From an undated typewritten sheet, “Statement of Resources in Sight for Confederate Home,” KyHS. See also “Confederate Home in Kentucky,” Lost Cause 7, no. 2 (September 1902): 23.
23. Lexington Leader, February 26, 1902.
24. Minutes, July 2, 1902.
25. Lexington Leader, February 26, 1902.
26. C-J, May 19, 1902.
27. Subscription Ledger, May 31, 1902, KyHS.
28. Minutes, July 2, 1902.
29. Minutes, July 30, 1902.
30. Minutes, September 4, 1902.
31. C-J and Lexington Leader, September 5, 1902.
32. News of the protests, including all quotes by Pewee Valley residents, is in C-J, September 6, 1902.
33. Hickman (Ky.) Courier, September 12, 1902.
34. Letter from J. E. Vincent to Fayette Hewitt, September 13, 1902, KyHS.
35. Bourbon (Ky.) News, October 3, 1902.
36. Richmond (Ky.) Climax, September 25, 1902.
37. For more on the Dukes, see C-J, October 21, 1906; and L. McF. Blakemore, “Mrs. Basil W. Duke,” ConVet 17, no. 12 (December 1909): 610. See also Matthews, Basil Wilson Duke, and Duke, Reminiscences.
38. The minutes of the board from October 2 show that the trustees accepted and deposited the chapter's $1,000 (and even discussed scheduling the chapter's reception), but the minutes are equally clear that the money was returned. (See Minutes, October 2 and 24, 1902.) For the next twenty years, however, the Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter would contend that their last-minute donation of $1,000 “made the Confederate Home possible.” See C-J, March 30, 1919, and Charlotte Woodbury's letter to the editor, C-J, February 15, 1932.
39. Letter from A. W. Bascom to Fayette Hewitt, September 22, 1902, KyHS.
5. The Governor and the Prisoner
1. The description of the opening of the Kentucky Confederate Home, including all speeches and quotations (except where noted) are from C-J, October 23-26, 1902; Louisville Commercial, October 24, 1902; “The Sun Shines Bright on the Old Kentucky Home,” Lost Cause 7, no. 3 (October 1902): 43-45; and “The Kentucky Confederate Home,” ConVet 8, no. 12 (December 1902): 558-560; and 9, no. 1 (January 1903): 15-16.
2. Other Confederate veterans’ homes weren't as ecumenical. The Louisiana soldier's home, known as Camp Nicholls, didn't allow a U.S. flag to fly overhead from the time the home opened in 1884 until 1912. See New York Times, July 6, 1912.
3. This and later quotations from Holloway in prison are from Ainsworth and Kirkley, The War of the Rebellion, 421.
4. For conditions at Fort Delaware, see Sturgis, Prisoners of War, 186–165, 275-276.
5. The New York Times, November 2, 1902, was skeptical about Beckham's chances for reelection; and the Lexington Leader, April 9, 1902, speculated that Young would run against Beckham in the primary.
6. The New York Times, September 14, 1903, notes that Beckham's reelection might be decided by the ex-Confederate vote.
7. Though the newspaper reporter says the veterans marched “under the Stars and Bars,” they more likely carried a version of the Confederate Battle Flag, the red flag with a diagonal cross of blue bars and white stars on the blue. The battle flag was adopted as a copyrighted emblem of the United Confederate Veterans. For clear illustrations of the different Confederate flags and their history, see Cannon, Flags of the Confederacy. For more about how the veterans viewed their flags, see Historical Sketch Explanatory of Memorial or Certificate of Membership in U.C.V's.
8. Letter from Mary Bascom to “Cousin Anna,” October 27, 1902, Filson.
9. H. Levin, Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, 54.
10. For information on Ellis, see Evans, Confederate Military History, and online at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (http://bioguide.congress.gov).
11. New York Times, June 12, 1902.
12. During the previous presidential campaign, candidate William Jennings Bryan made seventeen hour-long speeches in one day while traveling from Indianapolis to Louisville, addressing more than 100,000 people. See Bourbon (Ky.) News, October 10, 1900.
13. Clift, Governors of Kentucky.
6. The Druggist and the Sheriff
1. Handwritten petition to Capt. S. H. Ford, February 4, 1903, Filson.
2. Hay and Appleton, Roadside History, 126, 223, 75.
3. Vertical files at the KyHS Library include an unidentified, undated clipping of a bylined article by Louisville civic leader and columnist Adele Brandeis describing her family's summer vacation at Villa Ridge Inn.
4. Interestingly, Bennett H. Young knew something about operating a resort hotel. He and Walter N. Haldeman were active investors in the Crab Orchard Springs Resort in Lincoln County in the 1880s. See City of Louisville and a Glimpse of Kentucky, 146.
5. C-J, October 16, 1895.
6. C-J, September 6, 1902.
7. Biographical information on Salem H. Ford from “Maj. S. H. Ford, Maj. Gen. Pontz's Staff, Kentucky Division, M.C.V,” Lost Cause 4, no. 4 (November 1900): 21; History of Daviess County, 225, 364, 393, 403–405; Edwards, Shelby and His Men, 149–150; and Ford, “Reminiscences,” typewritten manuscript, Filson.
8. Ford's descriptions of the preparatory work are in C-J, September 11, 1902, and October 23, 1902.
9. An untitled ledger book in KyHS includes a list of gifts given to the Home during its first year of operation. On the hogshead of tobacco, see Bourbon (Ky.) News, January 9, 1903.
10. For the fern, see letter from Mary Bascom to “Cousin Anna,” October 27, 1902, Filson; the other gifts are described in C-J, October 23 and 24, 1902.
11. Letter from Commandant Coleman to the Tom Barrett Chapter, UDC, Ghent, August 18, 1903, Filson.
12. C-J, January 27, 1903.
13. Though the application form changed slightly over the years, the required information described in the text that follows remained consistent.
14. Quotations here and following are from the Home's application form, many of which are on file at KDLA.
15. Minutes, October 24, 1902. The quotation is from the standard form acceptance letter; thanks to Susan Reedy for showing me a copy of the acceptance letter received by her great-grandfather, John T. Jones.
16. Register of Inmates Received, KyHS.
17. The Gray Book, 32-33.
18. C-J, November 23, 1901, and “Kentucky Confederate Home,” Lost Cause 6, no. 4 (May 1902).
19. Both quotes come from newspaper coverage of the Kentucky Division UCV reunion, C-J, October 23, 1901.
20. Young's comment comes from his report to the Board of Trustees, Minutes, May 6, 1903. Some of the inmates come to the Home from county poorhouses, he observed, and are “in many instances grotesquely clad.”
21. Compare rules discussed in Minutes, September 4, 1902, and December 1, 1902, with text of “Rules and Regulations of Residents and Employees at Fitch's Home for Soldiers” and “Rules and Regulations for Inmates of Kentucky Confederate Home,” both KyHS.
22. Home management continually warned camps about recommending inebriates for admission. See Messenger 1, no. 2 (November 1907).
23. Register of Inmates Received, KyHS.
24. C-J, December 1, 1902; “ample justice” quote from Bourbon (Ky.) News, December 2, 1902.
25. Board members authorized the purchase of uniforms on January 7, 1903, according to the minutes of that meeting. Levy Bros. of Louisville would supply uniforms to inmates of the Home for more than thirty years.
26. Milliken's report is attached to Minutes, January 27, 1903.
27. Minutes, February 10, 1903. The Paducah Sun reported on February 4, 1903, that Ford left the job “because the duties are too hard for him.”
28. C-J, February 8, 1928; and George D. Ewing, “William Oscar Coleman,” ConVet 36, no. 3 (March 1928): 107. See also Mosgrove, Kentucky Cavaliers, 66, 232; and Willis, Kentucky Democracy, 456-457.
7. The General's Sister and the Stockman's Wife
1. Cox's Dixie's Daughters describes a UDC more elite, perhaps, than that found in Kentucky. True, members were more likely to be town women than farm women, but leadership of Kentucky's statewide organization was shared by big-city women and the (presumably) more middle-class small-town women during the years the Home was in operation.
2. Board minutes state clearly that Ford was hired as “Superintendent” and Coleman was hired as “Commandant.” Nevertheless, board members, UCV officers, and newswriters referred to Salem Ford by both titles. In later years, Coleman would describe himself as “the first Commandant of the Confederate Home.” Salem Ford's legitimate claim to being the first manager of the Home would be largely overlooked. See C-J, February 8, 1928.
3. Letter from Bennett H. Young to Board of Trustees, attached to Minutes, May 6, 1903.
4. The offenses and punishments described in this chapter (except where noted) are from the Home's Discipline Reports, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort (hereafter KDLA).
5. Minutes, May 6, 1903.
6. For Paducah and Lexington pledges, see Bourbon (Ky.) News, January 30, 1903, and Lexington Leader, October 4, 1903. W. J. Stone's letter to Fayette Hewitt, October 25, 1902, KyHS.
7. The commission agreements are among the Home's miscellaneous correspondence at KyHS. See New York Times, April 23, 1903, for notice of Cantrell's fundraising visit to that city.
8. Minutes, May 6, 1903.
9. From a speech by Judge R. H. Cunningham to the first statewide meeting of the Kentucky Division, UCV, October 22, 1901. The entire speech is in C-J, October 23, 1901.
10. The most complete listing of named rooms and the donors who named and decorated them is found in Messenger 1, no. 2 (November 1907).
11. C-J, January 23, 1903.
12. Gen. Joseph H. Lewis, C-J, October 24, 1902.
13. C-J, October 24, 1902.
14. For some reports of poorhouse horrors, see Adair County News, July 22, 1903; Owingsville (Ky.) Outlook, October 1, 1903; Breathitt County News, March 25, 1904; and Springfield (Ky.) Sun, August 8, 1905.
15. Florence Barlow's quote is from “Kentucky Confederate Home,” Lost Cause 10, no. 9 (April 1904); Bennett Young's is from Minutes, May 6, 1903.
16. Quote from the Report to the President, Seventh Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1903, KyHS.
17. Circular Letter to Kentucky United Daughters of the Confederacy Chapter, October 19, 1902, KyHS.
18. Letter from Mary Bascom to “Cousin Anna,” October 27, 1902, Filson.
19. Letter from Bennett H. Young to Board of Trustees, attached to Minutes, September 2, 1903.
20. Mrs. J. M. Arnold to Executive Committee, Confederate Home Board, January 14, 1904, KyHS.
21. Minutes of the Seventh Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1903, KyHS.
8. The Knight and the Icemaker
1. The Courier-Journal‘s Sunday rotogravure section for October 26, 1902, included a spread of photos of the Home's guest rooms and common areas.
2. The room numbering system changed from time to time as the Home was remodeled and rebuilt. Based on the Home's “Report of Occupation and Use of Rooms in Home” and its “Report of Inmates in the Home” (both KyHS) for the applicable periods, I believe these men were in Room 52.
3. Minutes, September 3, 1903.
4. “Reunion of Kentucky Division, U.C.V.,” ConVet 12, no. 1 (January 1904): 9-10.
5. Richmond Climax, January 27, 1904, and Bourbon (Ky.) News, January 29, 1904.
6. Mrs. J. M. Arnold to Executive Committee, Confederate Home Board, January 14, 1904, KyHS.
7. Bourbon (Ky.) News, November 21, 1902.
8. Bourbon (Ky.) News, October 3, 1905.
9. Bourbon (Ky.) News, June 29, 1909.
10. An engineering school chum wrote of how he and Norvell enlisted together in “From Baltimore to First Bull Run,” ConVet 7, no. 2 (February 1899): 62-63. Norvell wrote about his experiences in Camp Douglas in “Organized Prisoners in Camp Douglas,” ConVet 11, no. 4 (April 1903): 168-170.
11. Richardson, Field of Disease, 477. The description of Norvell is from the editor's introduction to O. B. Norvell, “Organized Prisoners in Camp Douglas,” ConVet 11, no. 4 (April 1903): 168.
12. Norvell's application for admission to the Virginia home (and correspondence about his illness with Basil Duke) are available at Library of Virginia, Richmond.
13. J. R. Deering, “Lieut. O. B. Norvell,” ConVet 8, no. 9 (September 1905): 425-426.
14. Report of Inmates in Home, December 1902 (for Norvell) and January 1903 (for Lovely).
15. “Kentucky's Munificence to the Confederate Home,” Lost Cause 10, no. 7 (February 1904): 51.
16. The confusion at this time over whether women would be accommodated at the Home seems purposeful. They certainly could not be housed in the dormitory-style main building. See “Kentucky's Munificence to the Confederate Home” and “Kentucky Confederate Home,” Lost Cause 10, no. 9 (April 1904); also Bourbon (Ky.) News, January 29, 1904, and February 26, 1904; and Richmond (Ky.) Climax, January 27, 1904.
17. Minutes, May 4, 1904.
18. Adair County News, February 15, 1905.
19. Rosenburg, Living Monuments, attributes the high mortality rates in Confederate Homes to the high percentage of “war-wounded” housed there (as many as a third of the veterans at some homes). He also points to a lifetime of poverty and stress-related disabilities as factors in the mortality rates. Most studies citing higher-than-average mortality rates among Civil War veterans (notably the Silver, Pizarro, and Strauss study reported by Aaron Levin in his article in Psychiatric News, April 21, 2006) have focused on Union veterans, due to better postwar medical record-keeping. Their conclusions, however, would doubtless apply to Confederate veterans as well.
20. Minutes, January 7, 1903.
21. Bowles's letter is dated January 7, 1903, and included in Minutes, January 7, 1903.
22. Minutes, January 7, 1903.
23. Bourbon (Ky.) News, June 30, 1903.
24. “Kentucky Confederate Home.”
25. Minutes, May 4, 1904.
26. Letter from Andrew M. Sea to Confederate Home Board of Trustees, January 6, 1903, KyHS.
27. “Kentucky Confederate Home.” Though their minutes indicate no discussion of the matter, the board was probably aware of the cost inefficiencies inherent in cottage-style housing. Trustees of the Confederate Soldiers’ Home of Georgia estimated that fifteen family cottages would cost about $1,000 each, while the same $15,000 would pay for a single large building that could house up to a hundred inmates. See Rosenburg, Living Monuments, 53.
28. For a description of the cemetery, monument, and dedication ceremony, see Emerson, Historic Southern Monuments, 146-150, and “Monument to Kentucky Confederates,” ConVet 12, no. 8 (August 1904): 383. For more about Hindman's gift, see Semi-Weekly Interior Journal, September 1, 1903, and Minutes, September 2, 1903.
29. As long as he lived, L. D. Holloway carried the flag at the head of every funeral procession. See Messenger 1, no. 6 (March 1908).
30. The fire equipment is described in Minutes, May 4, 1904.
31. Description of the dedication of the infirmary, including Thorne's behavior, is from C-J and Lexington Leader, November 12, 1904. Bennett Young later issued a statement denying there was anything untoward about Thorne's appearance. See Earlington (Ky.) Bee, November 17, 1904.
32. Annual Report of the Kentucky Confederate Home, for year ending December 21, 1905, KDLA. Infirmary crowding is described in Messenger 1, no. 2 (November 1907).
33. Bourbon (Ky.) News, June 29, 1909.
9. The Railroad Man and the Barber
1. Unless otherwise noted, all reports of inmate misbehavior, charges preferred, and punishment handed out are from Discipline Reports, KDLA.
2. Laurel (Ky.) Mountain Echo, June 2, 1904.
3. Letter from Fayette Hewitt to Bennett Young, March 9, 1903, KyHS.
4. Minutes, January 4, 1905.
5. Mrs. Leer describes her visit to the Home in “A Visit to the Confederate Home at Pewee Valley, Ky.,” Lost Cause 10, no. 8 (March 1904).
6. The history, explanation, symptoms, and treatment of war-related stress disorders come from Slone and Friedman, After the War Zone, and Rosen, Understanding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Written for the families of troops returning from deployment for America's Global War on Terror, After the War Zone is informative, sympathetic, practical, and highly recommended. Dean, Shook over Hell, presents some quantifiable data showing that the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder was greater among Civil War veterans than veterans of any other American war since.
7. The “mistaken kindness” quote is from Annual Report of the Kentucky Confederate Home for year ending December 21, 1905. The Discipline Reports enumerate more categories of inebriation than most professionals would ever encounter. Both, KDLA.
8. Minutes, July 1, 1904.
9. Messenger 1, no. 10 (July 1908). O'Brien recovered from his injuries and lived in the Home until he died in 1922. He is buried in the Confederate Cemetery at Pewee Valley.
10. Thompson, History of the Orphan Brigade, 236-238.
11. Young's description of the disciplinary process comes from Annual Report of the Kentucky Confederate Home for year ending December 21, 1905.
12. Minutes, August 9, 1904.
13. Messenger 2, no. 8 (June 1909). He returned to the Home just before his death and is buried in the Confederate Cemetery.
14. See the information on H. C. Melbourne in Minutes, July 1, 1904.
15. Annual Report of the Kentucky Confederate Home for year ending December 21, 1905.
16. Minutes, August 9, 1904.
17. Minutes, July 9, 1904.
18. Minutes, August 9, 1904.
19. Letter from John H. Leathers to Andrew M. Sea, October 27, 1904, KyHS.
20. Undated clipping included in Minutes, January 4, 1905.
21. The inspection committee, chaired by Charles L. Daughtry, presented its initial report at the board meeting of January 4, 1905. The Oldham County complaint is in Springfield (Ky.) Sun, March 22, 1905.
22. Hartford (Ky.) Republican and Stanford (Ky.) Interior Journal, July 21, 1905.
23. Undated clippings attached to Minutes, January 3, 1906.
24. See Minutes, January 3, 1906, and Bourbon (Ky.) News, February 2, 1906.
25. George wrote his note on a copy of a Senate appropriations bill for the Home that apparently was never brought to a vote. “I am certain that this bill will not be funded,” George wrote, before adding the good news about the inspection report. The handwritten note, signed by George, follows Minutes, January 6, 1906.
26. Annual Report of the Kentucky Confederate Home for year ending December 21, 1905.
10. The Socialite and the Editor
1. Messenger 1, no. 1 (October 1907).
2. The inmates consumed up to five gallons of fruit jam at a meal. Messenger 1, no. 2 (November 1907).
3. C-J, November 12, 1904, and Messenger 3, no. 3 (January 1910).
4. C-J, November 12, 1904.
5. Messenger 1, no. 12 (September 1908); 2, no. 1 (October 1908); and 2, no. 6 (April 1909).
6. Messenger 1, no. 1 (October 1907).
7. Minutes, June 3, 1904.
8. Minutes, March 2, 1906.
9. Mount Vernon (Ky.) Signal, October 13, 1905.
10. C-J, March 3, 1906.
11. Minutes, March 14, 1906.
12. This endorsement of Henry George is from Hopkinsville Kentuckian, March 31, 1906.
13. The Florence Barlow biographical information and quotes that follow, unless otherwise noted, are from Eagle, Congress of Women, 797-803; Lexington City Directory; and Seekamp and Burlingame, Who's Who in Louisville. The stories of Barlow's father and grandfather come from Perrin, Battle, and Kniffin, Kentucky; and Sofia Fox Sea, “Capt. Milton Balow,” Lost Cause 4, no. 10 (May 1901): 71.
14. Letter from Florence Barlow to Henry L. Martin, May 8, 1917, KyHS.
15. Ibid.
16. Lizzie Duke's biography is recounted in Messenger 1, no. 1 (October 1907).
17. Minutes, September 5, 1906.
18. Writer Jim Wheat of Dallas, Texas, first wrote of the Lizzie Howe–Handley-Duke connection on the Dallas County history Web site (http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jwheat/). This article, one of several on well-known Dallas madams, is carefully documented. I have checked Wheat's sources, and found some records of my own, confirming that Lizzie Howe left Kentucky and earned her fortune in Dallas as Lizzie Handley, then returned to the Bluegrass (via New York) as wealthy benefactress Mrs. L. Z. Duke.
19. New York Times, June 16, 1903; April 28, 1905; and February 10, 1910.
20. Whatever her origins, Mrs. L. Z. Duke gave liberally to ex-Confederates and Confederate causes. She was one of three major donors for the monument to General Felix K. Zollicoffer in Pulaski County (“Dedication of Zollicoffer Monument,” ConVet 18, no. 12 [December 1910]: 567-571) and contributed $3,000 toward an addition to the Oklahoma Confederate veterans’ home (Messenger 4, no. 2, December 1910).
21. Description of the opening of Duke Hall (including quotes) comes from “Kentucky's Confederate Soldiers’ Home,” ConVet 16, no. 9 (September 1908): 466-467; and Messenger 1, no. 2 (November 1907).
22. Young himself was in similar hot water twenty years before, when his Louisville Southern Railroad was alleged to have given gifts of stock to the Louisville mayor and city council members. See New York Times, October 14, 1885.
23. Lizzie Duke's past remained shrouded in Kentucky, even after her death on April 9, 1912. Her remains were shipped to Louisville for burial in the Confederate Section at Cave Hill Cemetery by an honor guard of ex-Confederates. Florence Barlow spoke on behalf of the Confederate Home chapter, but no other Daughters of the Confederacy participated in the funeral service. See C-J, April 10-12, 1912.
11. The Fiddlers and the Indian Agent
1. Messenger 4, no. 5 (March 1911). The Old Soldier Fiddlers was a popular act nationwide. Six months before they appeared in Pewee Valley, they were booked for a week at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco on a bill headlined by Lionel Barrymore. At the end of the week the Fiddlers were held over by audience demand; Barrymore wasn't. San Francisco Call, October 30, 1910. The description of their act comes from several sources, notably the review of their Orpheum performance, San Francisco Call, October 31, 1910.
2. Hazel Green (Ky.) Herald, April 30, 1908.
3. For biographical information on George, see Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, 117-118; and “Col. Henry George,” ConVet 27, no. 9 (September 1919): 346. For more about his military service, read George, History of the 3d, 7th, 8th, and 12th Kentucky C.S.A., written while he was commandant at the Home.
4. New York Times, May 4, 1888, and Messenger 1, no. 8 (June 1908).
5. Evans, Confederate Military History, 360-361.
6. The best comparative history of Confederate homes is Rosenburg, Living Monuments, the source of most information in this section.
7. For Oklahoma, see “From Annual Report of the Trustees of the Oklahoma Soldiers’ Home,” ConVet 21, no. 6 (June 1913): 310-312; for Texas, Dallas News, January 15, 1899.
8. Only the Mississippi veterans’ home came close to the comfortable elegance and setting of the Kentucky Home. Varina Davis, former First Lady of the Confederacy, turned over the family home, Beauvoir, for use as a soldiers’ home. Facing the Gulf shore in the little resort town of Biloxi, Beauvoir was not nearly as spacious as Kentucky's old Villa Ridge Inn.
9. Tennessee visitor: Mrs. T. H. Baker, “The Confederate Home of Kentucky,” ConVet 23, no. 11 (October 1915): 462-463; Florida visitor, Pensacola Journal, June 20, 1905.
10. Messenger 1, no. 8 (June 1908).
11. All reported in the “Religion” column of the Confederate Home Messenger from 1907 through 1911.
12. Messenger 2, no. 2 (December 1908).
13. Messenger 1, no. 2 (November 1907), and 1, no. 4 (January 1908).
14. Messenger 2, no. 7 (May 1909).
15. Messenger 1, no. 4 (January 1908).
16. Messenger 4, no. 2 (December 1910).
17. Messenger 4, no. 3 (January 1911).
18. Messenger 4, no. 5 (March 1911).
19. From untitled ledger of bills paid, 1911 and 1912, KyHS.
20. Issues of the Confederate Home Messenger from 1907 through 1911 include announcements and reports of dozens of Pewee Valley community events held at L. Z. Duke Hall.
21. Interview by author with Virginia Herdt Chaudoin, July 11, 2007.
22. Messenger 1, no. 1 (October 1907).
23. Messenger 3, no. 10 (August 1910).
24. Messenger 4, no. 7 (May 1911).
25. Messenger 1, no. 8 (June 1908).
26. Letter from T. W. Duncan, used with permission of Rebecca C. Myers.
27. Messenger 4, no. 7 (May 1911), and 4, no. 8 (June 1911).
28. Messenger 2, no. 11 (September 1909).
29. Messenger 2, no. 1 (October 1908), and 3, no. 6 (April 1910).
30. Hazel Green Herald, April 4, 1908.
31. Interview with Virginia Herdt Chaudoin.
32. Messenger 3, no. 2 (December 1909).
33. Biographical information on the Tree Man from, and letters used with permission of, Rebecca C. Myers.
12. The Farmer and the Daughter
1. Minutes of the Twenty-third Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1919, KyHS.
2. Minutes, December 27, 1918, record approval of a “Women's Advisory Committee.” Minutes, February 19, 1919, incorrectly refers to the “Ladies Advisory Committee,” and the mistake occurs occasionally thereafter.
3. Report by Henry George to Board of Trustees, December 31, 1914, KyHS.
4. For a while, George enlisted able-bodied inmates to reroof and repaint the main building; but when inmate Elisha L. Herndon fell off a ladder and broke both legs, the commandant decided it wasn't such a good idea to send seventy-year-old men scuttling over the roof and scaffolding. Messenger 1, no. 8 (May 1908).
5. Minutes, January 5, 1916.
6. Minutes of the Twentieth Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1916, KyHS.
7. Poppenheim, History of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 202–213.
8. Minutes of the Twenty-first Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1917, KyHS. The national organization was urging chapters to turn their hands to war work. See Dallas News, January 27, 1918, and C-J, April 23, 1918.
9. Minutes of the Twenty-first Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1917, KyHS.
10. Minutes of the Twenty-second Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1918, KyHS.
11. C-J, September 26, 1917.
12. Minutes, August 29, 1917.
13. Louisville Herald, September 24, 1917.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. For Young's statement, complete with item-by-item price comparisons, see C-J, September 26, 1917.
18. The Herald was the first to pick up the two-meals-a-day story, and the paper rode it hard, staying ahead of the other Louisville papers. However, when Young gave his statement (and full access to the Home) exclusively to the Courier-Journal, the Herald found itself frozen out of its own story. Aside from a few brief follow-ups, the story died away. See also C-J, October 6-7, 1917, and November 8, 1917.
19. The book was History of the 3d, 7th, 8th and 12th Kentucky C.S.A., published by the Dearing Printing Co. in 1911. “The matter was prepared while the author was busy discharging the intricate duties as Commandant of the Kentucky Confederate Home,” George says in the preface.
20. Letter from Florent D. Jaudon to Mrs. George L. Danforth, September 26, 1916, Filson.
21. Ibid.
22. Minutes, December 4, 1917.
23. C-J, July 31 and August 1, 1923; and “Col. C. L. Daughtry,” ConVet 31, no. 9 (September 1923): 348. For some of Daughtry's war stories, see C. L. Daughtry, “Stealing a Yankee Captain,” ConVet 10, no. 7 (July 1902): 308; and Daughtry, “Three Comrades of the Sixties,” ConVet 21, no. 1 (January 1913): 18-19.
24. Lancaster (Ky.) Central Record, July 10, 1903.
25. Minutes, January 5, 1918.
26. C-J, April 27, 1918.
27. Minutes, March 5, 1918.
28. Rosenburg, in Living Monuments, writes about the changing role of women at other Confederate homes; see especially 139-141 .
29. Minutes, December 27, 1918.
30. C-J, May 23, 1922, and Johnson, History of Kentucky, 1016.
31. Billy Beasley and his family lived rent-free for a time in an apartment owned by Thomas D. Osborne. See chapter 1.
32. Seekamp and Burlingame, Who's Who in Louisville, 247; and Louisville Times, June 13, 1919.
33. Southard, Who's Who in Kentucky, 443.
34. Louisville Times, June 13, 1919.
35. Messenger 2, no. 2 (November 1908).
36. He was invited in 1909 to return to St. Albans, Vermont, scene of his wartime raid and bank robbery, as principal orator for a regional historical celebration. A group of diehard Union veterans spun up an angry protest, and Young graciously withdrew his acceptance. Bourbon (Ky.) News, May 7, 1909, and Messenger 2, no. 6 (April 1909).
37. “The Passing of the Gray,” ConVet 27, no. 3 (March 1919): 76.
38. Young's cross-country race with death is described in C-J, February 23-24, 1919.
39. Lengthy coverage of Young's life may be found in C-J, February 24, 1919, and “The Passing of the Gray.”
40. Minutes, May 7, 1919.
41. Minutes, January 2, 1920.
42. Letter from Commandant C. L. Daughtry to Executive Committee, Board of Trustees, March 31, 1919.
43. Daughtry's letters and reports to trustees are increasingly peppered with stories of “friction among the employees,” “bickering and recriminations,” and “tracing the blame” during 1919 and early 1920. See letters dated March 31, 1919; September 5, 1919; and circa Summer 1919.
44. Letter from Commandant C. L. Daughtry to Board of Trustees, undated (ca. Summer 1919).
13. The Trainer and the Undertaker
1. The chronology, description, and details of the fire on March 25, 1920, unless otherwise noted, are constructed from contemporary newspaper accounts and reports of those who were present. I particularly relied on coverage in the Courier-Journal and the Louisville Herald, March 26-28, 1920. Charlotte Woodbury's report of the fire, much of which quotes Commandant Daughtry, appears in Mrs. John L. Woodbury, “The Confederate Home of Kentucky,” ConVet 28, no. 5 (May 1920): 196. Inmates gave reporters different versions of George Wells's shouted warning; I've assembled a version that makes sense (and inserted “goddam” where the papers’ editors left only dashes).
2. Minutes, May 7, 1919.
3. For a more detailed description of the 1908 fire (including extant equipment and procedures), see Messenger 2, no. 1 (October 1908). See also Stanford (Ky.) Interior Journal, October 13, 1908, and Hartford (Ky.) Herald, October 14, 1908.
4. Minutes, August 29, 1917.
5. San Francisco: New York Times, September 5, 1915. Chicago: New York Times, December 28, 1923. Quebec: New York Times, October 27, 1916.
6. Ripley, Unthinkable, helped me make sense of the confusing (and dangerous) behavior of people in the Home that evening.
7. Interview by author with Bill Herdt Jr., July 11, 2006.
8. The story of Ida Ochsner is from Hartford (Ky.) Herald, July 10, 1912.
9. Biographical information on Jones is from Susan Reedy and Jones's application to the Home, KDLA.
10. Coincidentally, the Courier-Journal Sunday rotogravure section had already gone to press with a lengthy article about the history of the Louisville Fire Department, accompanied by a great photo of the department's massive new American LaFrance motor-driven, motor-pumping fire engine. See it at C-J, March 28, 1920.
11. Some Pewee Valley locals say that the American LaFrance pumper was mounted on a railcar for the trip to Pewee Valley. I find no evidence of that being the case. Instead, it's more likely that the disabled behemoth was returned to Louisville on a flatbed railcar for repairs.
12. C-J, March 27, 1920.
13. C-J, March 28, 1920.
14. Louisville Herald, March 29, 1920.
15. C-J, March 27, 1920.
16. C-J, April 8, 1920, and Minutes, April 9, 1920.
17. Letter from Commandant Daughtry to Executive Committee, Board of Trustees, July 31, 1920.
18. Plans described in C-J, June 22, 1920. See also Minutes, April 9, 1920, and Minutes of the Twenty-fourth Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1920, KyHS.
14. The Reverend and the Rector
1. Minutes, May 7, 1919.
2. The nurse story is in the letter from Commandant C. L. Daughtry to Board of Trustees, September 5, 1920. In the same letter he writes that inmates are conspiring with employees to disregard his orders. His letter to Board of Trustees, July 31, 1920, expresses annoyance at Woodbury's oversight. The letters are appended to Minutes.
3. Minutes, April 9, 1920.
4. C-J, March 28, 1920.
5. A direct transcript of Leathers's hearing is in Minutes, April 9, 1920.
6. Minutes of the Twenty-fourth Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1920, KyHS.
7. The Woodbury, Stone, and Crowe information (including direct quotes) are recorded in Minutes, April 9, 1920.
8. White had a habit of writing lengthy “apologies” when charged with some infraction at the Home. (Most other inmates offered a verbal apology to the commandant or board.) One of White's apologies is a ten-page justification, including a detailed autobiography, from which the quotes in this section are taken. The apology is undated, but it appears White had been charged with having spoken in a cross manner to a matron. Only on the final page does he apologize for having “had the temerity to ask a very simple question.” KyHS.
9. A. N. White, obituary for H. H. Hockersmith, ConVet 20, no. 7 (July 1912): 334.
10. Minutes, May 7, 1919.
11. Louisville Times, August 5, 1921.
12. Contents of the dossier are described in an article in the Louisville Herald, June 7, 1921.
13. Louisville Times, June 7, 1921.
14. Louisville Times, August 10, 1921. According to Federal Census records, Imogene Nall was born to William E. and Emma Nall of Meade County in 1898. She was still living with both parents in 1910. In 1920 her mother was unemployed and living as a boarder in a house off Frankfort Avenue in Louisville.
15. The inspector's means of gathering evidence, along with the text of the report, is described in Louisville Times, July 22, 1921.
16. Dow's response is printed as a letter to the editor in Louisville Times, August 5, 1921.
17. Louisville Times, August 10, 1921.
18. The story of this Memorial Day observance earned headlines across the country. I used accounts in C-J, the New York Times, and the Dallas News, all appearing on May 31, 1923.
19. Though the Louisville newspaper reporter says the veterans were carrying the “Stars and Bars,” a photo of their furled flag taken that day shows what very well could be the Confederate Battle Flag. I defer, however, to the reporter's description.
20. Louisville Times, February 13, 1922.
21. C-J, June 29, 1923.
22. Louisville Herald, July 31, 1923. After Daughtry died, Florence Barlow, who remained embittered by her treatment, and that of Home veterans, lived on in a rented carriage house in Pewee Valley, churning out letters to veterans and legislators. She died, alone, in 1925.
23. C-J, August 4, 1923.
24. C-J, March 18, 1917.
25. New York Times, January 25, 1920, and Atlanta Daily World (reprinting a story published by the Confederate Soldier's Home of Georgia), June 6, 1936.
26. Letter from Inez Caudel, Bourbon County Chapter, American Red Cross, to A. S. McFarlan, August 18, 1924.
27. William Pete (sometimes spelled “Peet” or “Peat”) didn't leave many paper footprints, and it's hard to determine the veracity of his claim. The Morgan's Men Association often listed his attendance at its reunions; see, for example, C-J, October 15, 1929.
28. Letter from L. D. Young to Commandant McFarlan, September 17, 1924.
29. Minutes, September 3, 1924.
30. Letter from Commandant McFarlan to L. D. Young, September 4, 1924.
31. Letter from L. D. Young to Commandant McFarlan, November 21, 1924.
32. Dow resettled in Maryland, where he continued to speak up for the underdog. In 1928 he called on President Calvin Coolidge to plead for clemency for a teenager involved in the murder of a D.C. policeman. See Washington Post, June 10, 1928.
15. The Engineer and the Little Girl
1. On July 11, 2007, I met siblings Virginia Herdt Chaudoin, Louise Herdt Marker, and Bill A. Herdt Jr. in Pewee Valley to discuss—and record—their memories of the Kentucky Confederate Home. We met at the Herdts’ place of business, an auto parts store located a few hundred yards from where the Home once stood. (Their father and grandfather operated wagon repair and blacksmithing businesses from the same location for most of a century, and I had noted the Herdt business name on the Home's chart of accounts payable.) During the four hours I spent there, a dozen of the Herdts’ friends and contemporaries dropped in to add their recollections of Pewee Valley and the Home. At different times, with different words, they described the inmates as ghostlike, evanescent, walking wisps of memory from a past time and a distant place. These childhood impressions come from the last generation to have walked the paths of the Home and met the men who lived there, and their memories inform this chapter.
2. Letter from Commandant McFarlan to Evie Temple, April 14, 1924, KyHS.
3. C-J, October 18, 1924.
4. Noble, New Age, 18. Jerri Conrad, a descendant of George Noble, shared a copy of his self-published book with me. During Noble's three years and eight months in the Home, he developed and put to paper a complicated theosophy. He asked for an honorable discharge from the Home in 1926, paid to have his New Age printed, then lived the rest of his life as an itinerant on the proceeds of his book sales.
5. Letter from Commandant McFarlan to Evie Temple, April 14, 1924, KyHS.
6. Louisville Post, June 20, 1925.
7. This Christmas celebration, including photographs of veterans admiring the tree, comes from the Louisville Times, December 31, 1925.
8. Noble, New Age, 18.
9. Letter from Commandant McFarlan to Board of Trustees, August 31, 1928, KyHS.
10. Louisville Herald-Post, December 1, 1929.
11. Louisville Herald-Post, February 11, 1929.
12. Noble, New Age, 18.
13. Information about Inmates Requests and Kinfolks, KyHS.
14. Letter from Commandant McFarlan to Alice Hall, August 18, 1925, KyHS.
15. From a loose typewritten sheet in the death book, lists of “What Home furnishes in case an inmate desires to be buried in the Home cemetery” and “What friends or relatives must furnish if they desire body to be buried away from Home.” The page includes itemized prices for each. KyHS.
16. “U.D.C. Notes,” ConVet 37, no. 7 (July 1929): 271.
17. Louisville Times, October 14, 1929, and Louisville Herald-Post, December 1, 1929.
18. Louisville Herald-Post, February 11, 1929.
19. See, for example, C-J, March 3, 1929, and May 18, 1930.
20. Lexington Leader, March 21, 1930.
21. Monthly Payroll of Officers and Employees, April 30, 1930, KyHS.
22. C-J, February 15, 1932.
23. Lexington Herald, October 21, 1931.
24. Letter from Board of Trustees to Commandant McFarlan, marked as received February 1, 1932, KyHS.
25. Louisville Times, October 21, 1931.
26. C-J, February 12, 1932.
27. C-J, February 15, 1932, and Louisville Times, November 17, 1933.
28. “Chapter Reports,” ConVet 40, no. 5 (May 1932): 192.
29. Louisville Herald-Post and Louisville Times, July 6, 1932.
30. Letter from Commandant McFarlan to Board of Trustees, September 6, 1933, KyHS.
31. C-J, July 17, 1932.
32. Monthly Payroll of Officers and Employees, April 30, 1933, KyHS.
33. C-J, December 27, 1933.
34. Minutes, April 4, 1934.
35. Pewee Valley's reaction to the possibility that the grounds might be used for juvenile orthopedic patients is described in C-J, February 18, 1934.
36. C-J, April 18, 1934.
37. C-J, April 17-18, 1934.
38. C-J, April 18, 1934.
39. Minutes, May 2, 1934.
40. Letter from Attorney General Wooton to Board of Trustees, May 24, 1934, KyHS.
41. Final entry in payroll ledger book, signed by Commandant McFarlan.
Epilogue
1. Kentucky birth, marriage, and death records.
2. For letting bids, see C-J, August 21 and November 15, 1934. For disrepair, see Louisville Times, April 29, 1937.
3. Legislative Research Commission, “The Executive Branch of Kentucky State Government,” www.e-archives.ky.gov.
4. Louisville Herald-Post, August 29, 1936.
5. Louisville Times, April 28, 1937.
6. Oldham (County, Ky.) Era, October 7, 1938.
7. C-J, June 2, 1957.
8. Rosenburg, Living Monuments, and author's visits.
9. Dedication of Confederate Cemetery at Pewee Valley, June 3, 1957, KyHS.
10. Hay and Appleton, Roadside History, 14-15.